On the 9th of May 2008, during a campaign speech in the state of Oregon, Barack Obama said the following: “I’ve now been to fifty-seven states, I think one left to go…one left to go. Alaska and Hawaii I was not allowed to go to even though I really wanted to, because my staff couldn’t justify it.” Fifty-seven states plus Alaska and Hawaii? Usually, we could pass off a slip-up like this as the result of campaigning-fatigue. After all, it was a very energetic campaign. However, Obama paused, thought carefully about what he was going to say, said it and...